This course will examine architecture and urbanism from distant Antiquity to the end of the Baroque Age, the early 1700s. Architectural history, from the time of agricultural settlement, has been thoroughly colored by human alterations of the landscape and nature. These acts have been accomplished through the development of tools, technologies of building and landforming, and devices of representation (i.e., drawing and writing). They have equally been realized through the patterns of economic systems and religious beliefs. The intention throughout the semester will be to articulate the emergence of architecture through the historical development of design concepts (e.g., propriety, beauty, proportion) and design devices (figure/ground, axis, symmetry).SECTION DESCRIPTIONThis course examines the historical development of architecture, city planning, and landscape architecture, beginning from the first inhabited villages and concluding in the mid-eighteenth century. The course places special emphasis on the global connections between nations and empires, and how trade routes, military conflicts, colonial efforts, and religious ideas helped transfer concepts about architecture and city planning around the world. The class is designed to give students the tools to understand how buildings and landscapes reflect the lives of the people who created or used these spaces. Students will examine the wide range of factors that influenced the design and the interpretation of the built environment, including religious faith, movement, culture, economics, and politics. The course also considers the nature of architectural history itself, and how we come to value and study certain buildings and cities.

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